A disastrous mistake for the planet

Today, in the chemist getting medicine for Mummy’s dog Lotte, I discovered that Premier Daniel Andrews has made a disastrous mistake of political expediency.

The State Government has frozen vehicle licence and registration fees in an effort to relieve poor people whose employment is affected by the worsening coronavirus pandemic. Whilst I presume this is a temporary measure and will end when and if the COVID-19 pandemic is controlled by a new drug or drugs, I fear that it will be permanent. If the freeze is permanent, it will further add to Australia’s uniquely bad environmental and climate change performance, by making ecologically unaffordable car use – which in Australia means any car use – still cheaper. This is aided by petrol prices plummeting to less than ⅒ Australia’s ecological parity price.

Under this scenario, what will happen once businesses return? Most likely, we will see the kind of traffic congestion and pollution feared by organisations like the Public Transport Users’ Association. With petrol prices stuck at basement level ever since the indexation of excise ended in 2002, without which change petrol would be over 40¢ per litre less cheap today, if businesses reopen then there will be no incentive to not use cars.

What the government needs to do – politically unpalatable as it is – is to do something to make public transport safer during the pandemic. Providing free masks and gloves not only to drivers, but also for all passengers, would no doubt alleviate fears amongst the public of using public transport. The cost of doing this I have not calculated, but a moratorium on spending on new roads and postponement of planned road-only maintenance projects – already three whole decades and counting overdue – would certainly provide enough money to protect a critical service to Australia’s ecology from long-term decimation beyond the damage of the Lonie Report, CityLink, EastLink and other unnecessary wastes of public and private money.